Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Mason is a former Yankees player who came out of the closet in a big way after suffering a knee injury. Now playing for the Rainbow League, NYC’s GLBT amateur baseball league, he spends his time hooking up with other burly men…with the exception of last summer’s hookup with the very hot, effeminate, pierced, and tattooed Patrick.
Patrick can’t forget the one night he spent with Mason and hopes to rekindle what they shared when the season starts again. From the tips of his brightly colored hair down to his shoes, Patrick is flamboyant with a capital F and makes no apologies for who he is.
As the two begin seeing each other, Mason balks over revealing their relationship to his family. Though he’s been out of the closet, he’s strived to keep his hook-ups with the “manly men” that his family doesn’t find offensive. Yet, Patrick isn’t going to change who he is. Is their relationship doomed from the start, or can these two conquer the old hang-ups Mason has because of his upbringing?
I loved Mason and Patrick’s story. Mason grew up with a single mom. His two uncles stepped in as male role models, reinforcing their beliefs of how a young, black, male should be…which was not gay. When he came out of the closet after suffering an injury, his uncles were appalled. Despite coming out of the closet publicly, Mason was somewhat still in the closet about who he was. Determined not to be “one of those fags,” Mason made sure that the men he dated were big, burly guys for his family’s sake, until he met Patrick.
Patrick is used to men being ashamed of being seen with him. He thought Mason was different, but then Mason would do things to show he was embarrassed by being seen with Patrick. At times I found myself getting irritated with Mason. For each step Mason took forward, he took another back, leaving their relationship in limbo.
While Mason is the man’s man and Patrick is the effeminate one, they defy the stereotypes when it comes to the bedroom. Patrick is a top while Mason is a total bottom. This totally surprised me, and I have to say the sex scenes were hot!
One complaint I had about this book is that the side story featuring the love triangle of Nate, Carlos, and Aiden. We met these three in the first book, and it seems to be building up for the third book in this Rainbow League series. Unfortunately, it seemed to take away from Mason and Patrick’s story rather than complement it. If anything, when I was finished with the book, I was more interested in getting a conclusion to the love triangle than feeling satisfied with the HEA between Mason and Patrick.
Overall, this was just an okay read for me. To put it in baseball terms, this was like watching a little league game where the pitcher keeps walking the players around the bases, and every once and a while you see the kids sitting on the bench start pushing each other around drawing your attention away from the game. With that said, I do look forward to reading the next installment of The Rainbow League as I am dying to find out how the love triangle wraps up!
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
